February 11, 2009

Sinatra and the Southern Breeze

Tired after a recent concert tour, Frank announced that he needed a month-long vacation and chartered the Southern Breeze, a 168-ft. yacht owned by Houston Businessman C. W. Edwards, for a reported $2,000 a day. Mostly he asked people his own age—respectable Hollywood matrons such as Claudette Colbert, Merle Oberon, Rosalind Russell, and their husbands. He also invited Mia Farrow, 20-year-old daughter of Actress Maureen O'Sullivan and the late Director John Farrow. (source)

The ensuing voyage was probably the most closely watched since Cleopatra floated down the Nile to meet Mark Antony. Frank had been seeing Mia steadily for six months, and on the tip of every Hollywood tongue was the question: Was he or wasn't he? Married, that is. Mother O'Sullivan was positively snippy about it. "If Mr. Sinatra is going to marry anyone, he ought to marry me," she said. (source)